Fun with Fossils

I have to admit something- talking about evolution can get old in a sense. 3.8 billion years old, to be somewhat precise. But every so often, I get to talk about some recent discovery that shocks scientists the world over. Without further ado, I would like to show you the newly uncovered Maiacetus (mother whale in Latin), the whale that lived like a sea lion.

Mother Whale
It’s not just the discovery of a new species of whale that has science in a uproar- it’s also the fact that this fossil whale was extremely pregnant. As it turns out, a fossilized pregnant whale can give a wealth of information about how the creature lived.
The mother Maiacetus’ fetus was so developed that it already had a set of tiny teeth, something that suggests the baby was equipped to hunt and defend itself soon after birth. What is really amazing is that the baby whale was positioned for a head first birth. Since modern whales give birth tail first, (to prevent the newborn from drowning) this suggests that Maiacetus hauled its bulky body onto shore to give birth, just like modern day sea lions.



What else can fossils tell us?
It depends on what is being fossilized. An egg or a pregnant mother can tell paleontologists about what early life was like for that specific species. Teeth can tell us what the species ate, and sometimes, where they lived. Fossilized foot prints show how an extinct animal walked.

It may come as a surprise to my readers at UMass, but the nearby Holyoke Range is covered with dinosaur footprints from the late Triassic. 190 million years ago, the Pioneer Valley was a vast swampy region with a decent amount of volcanic activity going on nearby. Something interesting about these tracks- they show that theropod dinosaurs walked on two legs without dragging their tails. Believe it or not, this was a lively field of debate a few decades ago.

Notice how this early exhibit of T. Rex had the animals standing with a tripod tail? We now think they had an upright walking position, like a bird.
Public Domain

Fun German word of the day-
Lagerstätten- Means, “place of storage.” This are entire environments that have been flash frozen in stone. These are generally due to a catastrophic event that buries all life in the area and preserves it. The formation of Lagerstätten are associated with events like eruptions, landslides, and flash floods.